Tales from the Land of Consumer Reviews: Taking a Closer Look at Lurkers and Writers

Alexander Mafael and Sabrina Gottschalk 

While most consumers routinely read online reviews to inform their purchase decisions, the number of consumers who actively post reviews is astonishingly small. To find their way in the review jungle, readers process the information presented very selectively and pursue different objectives. They use different informational cues for their own decision-making, which often reflects rather stable patterns. Writers, too, are often less interested in presenting their experience as objectively as possible as contextual factors play an important role. Similar to the review readers, they act neither uniformly nor without biases. Whether they take up the pen at all depends, among other things, on whether they represent a majority or minority opinion and what image of themselves they want to convey. A profound understanding of the motives of readers and writers is important to improve one’s own rating system and requires special skills in the management of online ratings. Managers need to find ways to convert more lurkers into posters to get a more realistic picture of the experiences.